ROYAL SOC. CAN, VOL, SEC. 1,
THE
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA —
BY JOHN CABOT IN 1497
BEING EXTRACTS FROM THE
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
RELATIVE’ TO A CABOT CELEBRATION IN 1897
AND
THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS
A PAPER. FROM ‘THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY IN. 1896
WITH APPENDICES ON KINDRED SUBJECTS
“By SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON, Lit.D. (Laval)
OTTAWA
FOR SALE BY JAMES HOPE AND SONS
cena AE
ce naa i RSS NN
THE
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
BY JOHN CABOT IN 1497
IE
‘TY OF CANADA
IN IN 1897
With the Author’s
Compliments.
, CABOTS
A PAPER FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY IN 1896
WITH APPENDICES ON KINDRED SUBJECTS
¢
By SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON, Lit.D. (Laval)
OTTAWA
FOR SALE BY JAMES HOPE AND SONS
13896
= ——— EE
THE
~ DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
| BY JOHN CABOT IN 1497
BEING EXTRACTS FROM THE
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
RELATIVE TO A CABOT CELEBRATION IN 1897
AND
THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS
A PAPER FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY IN 1896
WITH APPENDICES CN KINDRED SUBJECTS
} rd
By SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON, Lit.D. (Laval)
OTTAWA
FOR SALE BY JAMES HOPE AND SONS
1896
Ai AAD SL Na SI A UL a
. . — Se eee
z 3 3 = TS Se
PREFACE.
In order to place before the members a convenient summary of the
present state of the projecced celebration of the fourth centenary of the
discovery of America by John Cabot, advantage has been taken of the
detached publication of a paper on the Voyages of the Cabots, read at
Yug )
the meeting of the Society in May last, to pretix such extracts from the
5S ' )
Proceedings as have any bearing on the question,
NM TET ERD, TER ier rytg
Ade Slab eared Aaa a Slice nae
CONTENTS.
PAGE
EXTRACTS FROM THE ReEPorT oF Council, MAY, 1896 .....c..eceee Vil
Letter from the Rey. Dr. O’Brien, A rchbishop of Halifax......... Vil
Letter from Mr, Clements R. Markham, F.R.S.. President of the
Royal Geographical Society.......isrwseovsesssevscedaescenveessceees Vil
Lotter trom: Dr.) webin: Wieor 543s ca sinigacedacessdcaesenaus. peedsdvacae VItI
Letter from the Rey, Dr. Harvey....... see cuales cataaian totes tatvetcaees 1X
Report of the Committee on the Cabot Celebration ........ .cecee8 XEL
Rosolutions Of The: Socks os suvsecvavedaos cunycecedearyeekvns ies Heedebess XIV
TRANSACTIONS.
THe Voyages or THe Canors In 1497 anv 1498—A Sequel to a
Paper in the © Transactions” of 1894 "y Samuel Edward
DU WSO, Tits CAVA) Vrs ssledececasyauccivad teeseadhsgads oaReeis ues 3
AprpENDIX A.—The Atlantic Coast of Labrador.........cccccceceucceceees 17
B.-—Living Slime of the Arctic Current ..........cccceee canes 20)
C.—Cape North on the Map of 1544......... .....06 Suxealida 21
ee D.—Juan de La Cosa and his Map.......... . csceeseeseeeeees 23
a B= J AO US CALTELOR sa irpsinis tvpeketwidocad seseedawsein ieee 469% 26
h.—The Liturgical Method of tracing the Discovery of
au Coast Line .......... seivade eae sain te Serr Jevsnetadesestecs ak
G.—Table of the Dates of Arrival of the Cod on the
Coasts of Labrador.,........ dae Sage eacinnes wavidedtbedace OO
IN OD BS sis cl sock sata as vane ga ate nails eaens senate waka eral oa Ge lena ened eeees 30
ILLUSTRATIONS :
Map of Juan do La Cosa, A.D. 1500...........ccceccececeeeecen es 2
Exterior Outline of Cape Breton Island ....-..........00e000ee Bei 21
Outline facsimile of a portion of the Map of 1544........... ...0608 22
Corresponding Outline of the Acadian Coast..............65. iaensens 23
View of Cape Race from the Sea ...........cc ce cece ee eceveeneeeeence 26
AXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF COUNCIL,
The Society will be called upon at the present meeting to decide
finally whether it will assemble at Halifax in 1897 from the 20th to the
26th of June, and commemorate the landing of the famous navigator
John Cabot, on some point on the Atlantic coast of the North American
continent, The committee appointed last year to consider the subject
will report to the Society through Dr. S. KE. Dawson, who has given to
the famous voyages of 1497 and 1498 most patient and thorough study.
The proposed celebration has attracted the attention of historical students
everywhere, and, if the matter is pushed with energy, there is no doubt
that the meeting will be largely attended. The Archbishop of Halifax,
Dr. O’Brien, who is at present at Rome, has written to the honorary
secretary in the following terms :
“ ArcuBISHOP’s House, HALIFAX, N.S., Jan. 31st, 1896.
“ Dear Dr. Bourtnot,—I leave on 15th Feb., for Rome, and shall pay
a short visit to Egypt and Jerusalem, As [ cannot be back in time for
the meeting of the Royal Society, and may not be in the way of sending
a note at that time, I beg you to accept this as my excuse for non-appear-
ance.
“Regarding the report the sub-committee are expected to make, re
meeting at Halifax in 1897, I see no difficulty in arranging suitably during
the course of next summer, If’ it should seem advisable to you and the
other members of the committee, we could easily arrange for an excur-
sion to Sydney, set up a stone there—the most suitable place as Cape
Breton is inaecessible—and thus fittingly celebrate the occasion.
“T remain,
‘‘ Dear Dr. Bourinot,
“ Yours very sincerely,
“C. O'Brien.”
Several letters have also been received from distinguished persons
whose historical and cartographical knowledge enables them to speak
with authoriiy on the subject of the Cabot voyages. Special attention is
called to the following interesting letter from Mr, Clements R. Markham,
F.R.S., C.B., the president ot the Royal Geographical Society, whose
opinion is of great value. It will be seen that he promises the ¢O-oper-
ation of the great society of which he is at present the distinguished head,
Mr. Markham writes : ,
“21 Eccigsrone Square, Lonpon, 8.W., April 26th, 1896,
‘‘ Dear Sir,—I have read the proposal for a Cabot celebration, in Can-
ada, on the 24th of June, 1897, in the ‘ Transactions of the Royal Society
of Canada,’ with great satisfaction ond interest.
VIII THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS
“It is fitting that the memorable achievement of that intrepid seaman,
John Cabot, should be remembered on the four hundredth anniversary of
his discovery, and it seems to me to be specially fitting that a commemor-
ation should take place in the land which he Was the first to discover,
“There is great significance in the voyage of Cabot. It was not the
first British enterprise of the kind; for during the previous seven years
expeditions had been annually despatched from Bristol to discover land
to the westward. But it was the first that was led by a man possessed of
ull the scientitic knowledge of his time, and the first that was successful.
* John Cabot must, therefore, be considered to have been the founder
of British maritime enterprise. It is unfortunate that nothing has been
preserved that can give us a clear idea of the man, of his character and
hisattainments. We can forma judgment of Columbus from his writings.
We know something of his heroisms and of his failings, He is a living
man to us, and, therefore, he has attained world-wide celebrity, and
appeals to our sympathy and our reverence, John Cabot is little more
than a name; but it is a great name. The few certain facts we know
concerning him are immortal facts, ever to be had in remembrance. THe
made the third voyage across the Atlantic and returned. He discovered
the mainland of America. He raised the beacon which showed Knglish-
men the way to the new world. He was the first to hoist the cross of St.
(reorge on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean. His fate is unknown.
Searcely anything is known of his companions. But the names of three
Englishmen are preserved, who certainly fitted out vessels, and probably
went with Cabot in 1498. The names of Laicelot Thirkill, Thomas
Bradley, and John Carter, therefore, should also be had in remembrance,
* There are very solid reasons for a Cabot celebration ; very complete
justifications of the proposal of the Royal Society of Canada. I trust
that the proposal will receive the support it deserves, and I can assure
you that this honour, done to the memory of the great navigator, has my
very cordial sympathy ; and I am sure that it will have the sympathy of
the Society over which I have the honour to preside,
“ Believe me, dear sir, to be ever
“ Yours faithfully,
“CLEMENTS R. Markuam,
* President R. G. 8.
“ Dr. J. G. Bourinot, Secretary to the Royal Society of Canada.”
Dr. Justin Winsor, the librarian of Harvard University, and editor
of the “ Narrative and Critical History of America,” whose knowledge of
artography is not equalled by that of any other student in America, also
writes to the society :
‘Gore Haut, Campripas, Mass., May 2nd, 1896.
“ Dear Dr. Bourtnot,—I think the Royal Society does well to com.
memorate the Cabot voyages. Perhaps I can send a paper in June, 1897,
I shall be at that time on my way abroad for fifteen months’ absence,
A ai i Nani Se
seaman,
orsary of
amemor-
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en years
ver land
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iccessful,
founder
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ster and
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ymplete
I trust
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athy of
GS.
editor
dge of
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896.
0 com:
, 1897.
Ce,
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY IX
“Could it not be arranged that the meeting of 1897 at Halifax be a
joint meeting of the Royal Society and the American Historical Assovia-
tion, with delegates from the state historical societies ?
“Very truly,
“Justin WINsor,
Dr. Moses Harvey, F.R.S.C., the well-known historical writer of
Newfoundland, also approves most warmly of the idea in the following
terms :
“Sr, Jony’s, Newfoundland, May 5th, 1896,
“Dear Dr. Bourtnor,—I am glad to learn that at the approaching
meeting of the Royal Society of Canada a proposal will be submitted in
favour of some suitable celebration of the discovery of the continent of'
North America by John Cabot. Iam aware that 2 proposal of the same
nature has been laid before the public of Canada, and T believe also, to
some small extent, before the people of the United States, and has met
with a favourable response. [ have long taken a deep interest in this
matter, and in a paper on ‘The Voyages and Discoveries of the Cabots,’
read before the Historical Society of Nova Scotia, November 14th, 1893,
and since printed in their ‘Collections,’ I ventured to make a suggestion
in favour of such a celebration as is now under discussion. in 1897, the
fourth centenary of Cabot’s great achievement. Subsequently I sent you
a brief communication on the same subject which you were good enough
to lay before the Royal Society of Canada, where it met with a favour-
able reception. Doubtiess the same thought may have presented itself
to many other minds ; but whether I was the first to give it expression in
tangible shape is of little moment. That it is now likely to be translated
into fact and become an embodied r ality is to me a matter of profound
satisfaction, as it will be the realization of a long-cherished hope,
“ Indeed it seems to me that the proposal is one which will commend
itself, when duly expounded and considered, to most men of thought and
intelligence. The whole civilized world lately united in celebrating the
fourth centenary of the discovery of America with unequalled pomp and
splendour and in heaping fresh laurels on the grave of Columbus. The
Old World fittingly joined hands with the New, in expressing their sense
of the greatness of an achievement which must stand alone in the records
of time as having influenced the destinies of humanity more widely and
permanently than any other single deed accomplished by the courege and
genius of man, But, while we would not for a moment detract from the
glory which must for ever encircle the name of Columbus, should we for-
get to honour the memory of the man who achieved a discovery which
though not so brilliant and dazzling as that of Columbus, yet, judging it
by its far-reaching results, was second only to his. The real discoverer
of North America was John Cabot; and his landing on its shores pre-
ceded by nearly a year the date when Columbus first touched, without
i
ee ao eet
mor a
X THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS
knowing it, the coast 0, South America, In virtue of Cabot’s discoveries
England established her claims to the sovereignty ‘f a large portion of
these northern laads. The fish-wealth of these northern seas, which
Cabot was the first to make known, speedily attracted fishermen ; and
for the provection and development of the fisheries colonies were first
planted, Other nations, such as France, profited by the great discovery.
That North America is now so largely occupied by an English speaking
population, with all their vast energies and accumulated wealth, has been
largely owing to the daring genius of Cabot who opened a pathway to
the northern portion of the new hemisphere. But for Cabot, Spain might
have monopolized discovery in North as well as South America; English
and French enterprise might have taken different directions and the his-
tory of North America been shaped in different fashion.
“The genius and courage of Cabot were second only to those of Col-
umbus. He too pushed out in a little barque into the unknown waters of
one of the stormiest seas in the world, braving its perils, and opened the
way to new and boundless regions of natural wealth. Cartier, Marquette,
La Salle, followed as explorers, ‘The Old Dominion,’ founded by Sir
Walter Ralegh, was the first of that cluster of colonies which finally
developed into the United States. Quebec was founded and the occupa-
tion of Canada commenced, All this was the outcome of Cabot’s voyage
in 1497. As truly as Columbus pioneered the way in the south did Cabot
open the way to a far nobler civilization in the north, the developments
of which continue to expand before our eyes to-day. As Fiske has well
remarked in his ‘Discovery of America,’ ‘The first fateful note that
heralded the coming English supremacy was sounded when John Cabot’s
tiny craft sailed out from Bristol Channel on a bright May morning of
1497.’
“Tt seems to me that it would not be creditable to the northern people
to permit the year 1897 to pass without some worthy celebration in
grateful recollection of the man who first opened North America to Euro-
pean civilization. It would be no more than an act of tardy justice ; for
it is discreditable to England that one of the bravest of her sailors who
gave her a continent, has never yet had the smallest honour conferred on
his name, or the most insignificant recognition of the vast services he
rendered to his adopted country. He sleeps in an unknown grave and
no statue or monument has been raised to his memory.
“ Let us hope, then, that this reproach will soon be wiped away and
that arrangements will be made ere long for paying a, becoming tribute
to one of the noblest names on the roll of England’s great explorers.
“There are strong reason 3 why Canada should lead the way in such a
celebration. It is perhaps impossible to decide with certainty as to the
landfall of Cabot, or to reach unanimity of opinion on that point We
must be guided by probabilities, as in many of the most important affairs
oe
pints E Tisai eras ne edit ai
liscoveries
portion of
as, which
men ; and
were first
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ithway to
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; English
| the his-
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arquette,
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id Cabot
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ote that
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Pee iat lis ie ah chee NSE nt alle co
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY XI
of life, But it seems to me that the preponderance of evidence is alto-
gether in favour of some part of the island of Cape Breton having been
the first land seen by Cabot, At all events his discoveries pioneered the
way for the original settlement of Canada, so that Canadians would fit-
tingly take the lead in a centenary celebration. Newfoundland was cer-
tainly discovered by Cabot at some time during his first voyage, and
doubtless will join in a Cabot celebration.
“T do not presume to conjecture what shape such a commemoration
may take; but Iam satisfied it will be one that. will be worthy of the
great name of Cabot and worthy of the great confede ‘acy that initiates
and carries out such a centenary celebration,
‘Sincerely yours,
“M. Harvey.”
The founder of the society, the Marquis of Lorne, takes much inter-
est in the project, and writes most approvingly to the secretary, and it is
proposed to invite both him and Mr. Markham to be present on the oceca-
sion of the celebration,
In directing the attention of the society once more to the subject, the
council need only remark that in honouring the famous Italian navigator
there is no thought of detracting in the slightest degree from the fame of
the intrepid sailor of St. Malo, who was assuredly the first to enter the
great valley of the St. Lawrence, and see the ancient Villages of Canada
on the banks of the great river, which he followed to Hocheiaga. But
all historians agree that John Cabot discovered the continent of North
America before the Spaniard had even landed on the shores of Florida,
and an eminent Spanish pilot, the Basque, Juan de La Cosa, who accom-
panied Columbus on_ his voyages, has recognized beyond dispute the
claim of English discovery on the Atlantic coast of North America by
his remarkable map. Englend, therefore, owes much to Cabot, since it is
on his discovery that her claim to the country on the Atlantic seaboard
of the continent was first based. Ver ‘azano, On Whose misty later voy-
age the French also based a claim, came to America twenty-seven years
later. It seems, then, only fitting that the people of the Canadian
Dominion, who own so large a portion of the continent on which Cabot
first landed, should at last pay a tribute of respect to the memory of a
great navigator, whose name must always be recorded on the scroll on
which the names of Columbus, Corte Real, Verrazano and Cartier
already find so conspicuous a place.
628 BO ARE Pa
XII THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS
Report oF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED IN May, 1895, iN RELATION TO
THE COMMEMORATION IN 1897 oF THE Discovery oF THE Matn-
LAND oF Norti AMERICA By JOHN CABOT,
Your committee regret that, in discussing this important question,
the society will not, at this meeting, have the aid of two of the members
of the committee—the Most Reverend the Archbishop of THalifax and
Mr. Sandford Fleming—who, from their intimate local knowledge, apart
from all other considerations, would be of great assistance in the deliber-
ations of the society. They are, however, contident that the substance of
this report is in accordance with the views of the whole committee, inas-
much as the archbishop has expressed his views in letters, and Mr.
Sandford Fleming in several conversations with the remaining members,
While the committee are of opinion that the greatly preponderating
weight of evidence points to the easternmost cape of Cape Breton as the
landfall of John Cabot in 1497, they would observe that the commemor-
ation now proposed will not commit the Royal Society of Canada, as a
whole, to the definite acceptance of that theory. The alternative theory
of a landfall on Labrador excludes any possibility of a commemoration
there; because no locality on a coast extending over eight degrees of
latitude has been specially indicated, excepting Cape Chidley, which is un-
approachable because of ice at the time of the landfall, and, if a lower
latitude be assumed, the want of means of communication on the coast of
Labrador renders it for such a purpose inaccessible. The event to be
commemorated is the discovery of the continent of America on the 24th
of June, 1497—an event of profound importance, the far-reaching conse-
quences of which cannot be over-estimated. Such an event the Royal
Society of Canada cannot afford to ignore.
Nevertheless, although the society may not definitely decide upon
the locality of the landfall, it is fitting that the commemoration should
take place upon the Atlantic coast of the Dominion; for, beyond ail
question, it was along that coast that Cabot sailed, and he did not pene-
trate into any part of the gulf. For this reason the proposal to hold the
next meeting of the society at Halifax seems most appropriate ; and that
city, from its accessibility and the facilities it possesses for such a meet-
ing, is well suited for the celebration.
If the resolution of the society, at its last meeting, to hold the ses-
sion of 1897 at Halifax be sustained, it will be necessary to appoint, at
this meeting, a committee to make the requisite arrangements. That
committee should be commissioned to act in concert with a committee of
citizens of Halifax who may be disposed to co-operate with them. That
would be their first duty, and the joint committee would then make such
further arrangements as might appear necessary.
LATION TO
‘HE MAIN-
t question,
» members
vifux and
dge, apart
he deliber-
Ibstance of
ittee, inas-
, and Mr,
members.
mnderating
ton as the
ommMemor-
nada, asa
ive theory
emoration
legrees of
hich is un-
if a lower
e coast of
ent to be
1 the 24th
ing conse-
the Royal
side upon
on should
eyond ail
not pene-
» hold the
and that
1 a meet-
d the ses-
ppoint, at
ts. That
mittee of
m. That
lake such
Rants Bie RNS Saveteiins aciicnsiicdatasdad ble
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY XIII
It will be remembered that the council of the Royal Society, at the
mecting in May last, suggested that a permanent memento of the great
achievement of Cabot should be erected upon some point of the Nova
Scotia coast. Your committee would remark that no place on the whole
Atlantic coast seems so suitable as Sydney. On the brow of the hill over-
looking the mouth of the harbour is an ideal spot for such a monument.
Standing there the spectator may look out eastwards upon a stretch of
ocean, unbroken and uninterrupted, until it washes the western shore of
Brittany or extends into the English Channel, This spot is about twenty
miles in a direct line from the easternmost point of land in the province,
At this remote period it is impossible to locate with certainty, within a
few miles, the precise spot upon which the banner of St, George was first
planted ; and, while your committee believe that the landfall was at the
easternmost point of Cape Breton, it is not probable that the exact apex
of that point was lighted upon after so long a voyage across an ocean of'
darkness. Sydney would then, in their opinion, seem to be sufticiently
near the landfall, if the Cape Breton theory be adopted, and yet the
society will not be so absolutely bound to that theory as if they were to
erect & monument on the Cape itself. The Cape is an unfrequented and
forgotten place. No one now lands on 2 point which was the rendezyous
of the fishing fleets of three hundred years ago, and one of two points
found on all the maps from 1504 down to the present moment. There
are many very well informed men, even in the maritime provinces, who
do not know of a real Cape Breton, which gives its name to the Isle
Royale of old Louisbourg days. The overjoyed courtier who, at an
anxious period of the old French war, ran to tell King George that Cape
Bretoa was an island was the prototype of a number of excellent people
Who are discovering that the island is named after a cape, next to Cape
Race, the most ancient. and persistently known to mariners since the
veil of the western ocean was lifted, Sydney is the easternmost settle-
ment of any importance on the continent of America, and may, therefore,
rightly claim the monument to Cabot.
Your committee have inquired into the mitter, and find that a
simple and sufticient monument could be erected at a cost ot $1,000 to
$1.800. Without in the least degree compromising the question or bind-
ing themselves, still less the society, to even an opinion, they obtained
tentative drawings, with approximate cost. It now remains for the
society to decide upon what is required and as to the amount it js
advisable to expend. The drawings are, in the committee's opinion, un-
suitable, but they are useful as a guide to the approximate cost of the
monument to be erected. The monument should be easily visible from
vessels entering the harbour, and an Obelisk about twenty feet high
could be had for about $1,000, and would, in their opinion, be more
suitable.
SE te
XIV THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS
Such mementos of’ great historic events often cost lar
ning up to many thousands of dollars, and without some de
point the subject could not be discussed,
Your committee trust that this report will be sufficiently detinite to
bring the whole question up in such a way that it may be thoroughly
und intelligently discussed. If anything is to be done, it must be done
at this meeting.
ge sums, run-
finite starting-
On motion the report was adopted,
Moved by Dr. S. E. Dawson, seconded by Dr. George Stewart,—
“That the Committee on the Cabot celebration be continued, and that
Mr. B. Sulte and Capt. Deville be added thereto, with power to add to
their number from among the members of’ the Society resident in Nova
Scotia, and that the Committee so constituted be instructed to make
arrangements for the meeting of the Society in 1897, at Halifax.’—
Carried.
d Moved by Dr. S. EB. Dawson, seconded by Dr. George Stewart, —
“That the Most Reverend the Archbishop of Halifax, the Hono ‘ary Sec-
retary, and Messrs, Sandford Fleming and S, FE. Dawson be appointed a
committee to obtain designs for a monument to be erected at Sydney to
commemorate the discovery of America by John Cabot—such monument
not to cost less than $1000—and to submit the designs to the Council for
adoption, and that the Council be hereby wuthorized to approve and
finally to adopt a design and to give an order for its execution whenever
| it shall appear that funds will be a railable, from subscriptions or any
4 other source, to pay for the work.’—Carried,
Ottawa, meeting of May, 1896.
NE acta bE lRS Sit Ria iio liam conte ae Ai a
sums, run-
ite starting-
y detinite to
thoroughly
ust be done
Stewart,—
1, and that
to add to
it in Nova
d to make
Halifax.’
Stewart, —
1orary Sec-
ppointed a
Sydney to
monument
Jouncil for
prove and
whenever
ns or any
hiatal ER Sit Biante ili haan coon ses.
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Src, IT., 1896. [3] Trans, R. S.C,
l.—The Voyages of the Cahots in 1497 and 1498—A sequel toa paper in
the * Transactions ”’ of 1S94,
By Samurn Epwarp Dawson, Lit. D. (Laval. )
(Read May 19, 1896.)
At the suggestion of one of its fellows—the Rey, Moses Harvey—the
Council of the Royal Society of Canada, in its report published in the
“ Proceedings” of May, 1894, called attention to the near approach of the
year 1897, and to the fact that it was the four hundredth uiniversary of
the discovery of the continent of Americ: by John Cabot; and in the
“Transactions” of that same year is a paper discussing the landfalls of
the Cabot vovages, together with other kindred questions, The paper
was written at some length and with much detail, and was illustrated by
facsimiles of early maps. A few copies were published separately, and
were sent to those (so far as their addresses could be ascertained) who
had made a study of’ the subject. Various reviews and notices of this
paper appeared from time to time, and letters, generally commendatory ,
were received from scholars who had devoted years to the solution of the
question, One notice, however, may with propriety be reproduced, be-
“uuse it is by a fellow of’ this society, and that one who had first drawn
the attention of the society to the approaching anniversary—it is by the
Rev. Moses Harvey—a scholar who has made a lifelong study of this and
of cognate subjects, whose works on the history of Newfoundland are of
high authority, and whose Writings upon the geography and natural his-
tory of that island appear not only in many separate volumes but as con-
tributions in many standard works of importance. Of the paper Dr.
Harvey said :!
“This admirable monograph on ‘The Voyages of the Cabots’ is
* peculiarly timely, and will help to awaken attention to the projected
“commemoration. It is incomparably the best thing ever written on
“ the subject. It discovers great industry in research and rare skill in
“the treatment of his materials. I have read and written a great deal
* on this subject, but we must all dof our caps to De. Dawson’s exhaus-
“tive monograph. It appears to me he has settled the long disputed
‘question of Cabot’s landfall. The weight of evidence he has accumu-
“ lated in favour of the Cape Breton theory will set aside all other claims.
“That in favour of Bonavista, Newfoundland, rests on vague tradition,
‘and is sustained by no substantial evidence whatever.”
This testimony comes with very great weight from a scholar of such
authority on those questions, and a resident, moreover, of Newfoundland.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
The monograph, however, attracted very little attention at the time
it was read in May, 1894; and the subject appeared to excite little inter-
est in the public mind. All the discussion of fifty years, so profoundly
interesting to Humboldt, Biddle, Kohl, Harrisse, Justin Winsor, Kretsch-
mer, Kunstmann, D’Avezac, Deane, Henry Stevens, Fiske, Brevoort, and
many others, had taken place, for the most part, outside of Canada. The
Abbé Beaudoin, in Le Canada Francais tor October, 1888, did indeed con-
tribute a valuable paper upon the question, and it was incidentally treated
by Laverdi¢re? and Ferland,’ but they did not devote any special atten-
tion to it. Our honorary secretary, in his ex’ vustive monograph on
Cape Breton, published in 1892, paused to consider it in some of its
aspects, but, while apparently inclining to the Cape Breton landfall, he
did not diverge from his main theme to follow the details of what was
then to him a side issue. Another of our members, Mr. Sulte, in his
Histoire des Canadiens Francais, mentions the Cabots, without stopping to
discuss their achievements; but the scholars who have taken up the
Cabot voyages tor their main theme and have elaborated special studies
upon them, were almost all not resident in Canada, In January, 1895,
Mr. O. A. Howland contributed to the Canadian Magazine an crticle
upon this question, and took the year 1497 as his starting point for Cana-
dian history. Ile has taken up the subject of a commemoration with
great vigour and earnestness, and is the leader of a movement for a his-
torical exposition in Toronto in the year 1897, planned on a broad, national
scale.
The monograph of L894 had two principal objects. Its main motive
was to establish the landfall of 1497; but another motive, scarcely less
in the writer's mind, was to dispel, before it was too late, the fog that was
gathering around our early geographical history in the shape of a theory
that Cabot had entered the gulf and discovered Prince Edward Island
and had named it the Island of St. John. This utterly baseless notion
was creeping into all the books. as one writer would repeat from another,
and it had got at last into the railway guide-books and began to crop out
in advertising pamphlets. Whatever may be said about the landfall, this
last theory may be considered as ettectually disposed of.
The landfall advocated in the monograph has not passed without
challenge and the present paper is intended to consider such objections as
have come under the writer's notice since its publication, Not such
objections as are continually appearing in the shape of letters to newspapers
written by persons who would seem to have recently heard of the
matter for the first time ; but objections made by scholars and students
who recognize the difficulties surrounding the inquiry ; who know and
can weigh the original authorities, who take a real interest in the subject,
und who are prepared to give to it the time and the attention necessary
in all matters of historical research,
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[8. E. DAWSON ] THE VOYAGES OF TILE CABOTS 5B
In the tirst rank of that class of estimable scholars must be reckoned
Mr. Justice Prowse, whose valuable and exhaustive history of Newfound-
land appeared in the year 1895, In a note at page 30 he refers to the
monograph in courteous terms and gives the reasons why he holds to the
theory that Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland was Cabot’s landfall, These
reasons ire set forth concisely in his text at page 10 as follows :
“In this colony an unbroken tradition points to Cape Bonavista,
“ Newfoundland, as the first land seen, This tradition is confirmed by an
“ English map of Newfoundland made by John Mason, a distinguished
“captain in the Royal Navy of England about 1616. Opposite to Cape
* Bonavista he writes these words, probably copying the wording of an
“older map: First found by Cabot, A Cabote primum reperta. On this
“ground and for other reasons as a Newfoundlander, [ claim for Cape
“ Bonavista the honour of being the first land seen in North America.
“ Tn all probability St. John’s was also discovered either on Cabot’s first or
* second voyage.”
This is practically all which can be urged in favour ot Newfoundland ;
because if the “other reasons’ were of weight they would find thei* ap-
propriate place there. Judge Prowse is no doubt referring to the reasons
he urges against other theories, but the above are the reasons in favour
of his own—the positive and substantial reasons—in short, the only
reasons.
That the learned judge is a Newfoundlander is irrelevant as a reason.
If indeed, it had any bearing upon the discussion it might be thought to
obscure that impartial (learness of vision so essential in estimating evi-
dence. Moreover, Newfoundlanders are not all in aceord with Judge
Prowse, Mr, J. P. Howley, the director of the Geological Survey of
Newfoundland, is the advocate of a landfall at Labrador, and the Rey. Dr.
Harvey, also of Newfoundland, is an advocate of a landfall at Cape
Breton. There is no more dangerous snare in the investigation of such
questions than national or local feeling. The student of history must
eliminate from his reasoning all such “idols of the tribe””—to borrow a
phrase from Lord Bacon, The present writer came to this inquiry with
the belief that Newfoundland was the landfall and was astonished to find
on inve.tigation no substantial evidence for it, Judge Prowse’s second
reason, viz., the unbroken tradition of the coast, cannot possibly have
weight because there were no inhabitants on the coast by whom a tradi-
tion could be preserved. A tradition pre-supposes settlers on the coast to
hand it down. But there were no settlers for a hundred years after Cabot.
The charter for the first settlement was for Guy’s colony in 1610 and that
was the first colony. Judge Prowse himself calls the century previous
to that date the chaotic period and describes the island as a veritable
no-man’s-land, without law, religion or gdvernment, the resort alike of
English and foreign fishermen. Even the Indians all perished—their only
6 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
relations to the rough fishermen who thronged the harbours in summer
and to the settlers who came in 1610 were relations of hatred and aversion.
The Beothiks of Newfoundland were exterminated and made no sign—
their language perished with them, excepting the scanty vocabularies of
doubtful value which Dr. Patterson ‘ tells us were got from John August,
Mary March and Shanandithit, the only three individuals who feli alive
into the hands of the white men. Then, those lawless fishermen of every
nation who alone for 110 years frequented the coast in the fishing season,
they were not such people as inquire into or perpetuate traditions. All
that can be said is that the English based their claims to the American
continent on Cabot’s discovery and his sailing along the coast,’ not spec-
ially of Newfoundland but of Nova Scotia and of the American colonies as
far south as Florida as well. There is positive evidence of some kind for
Labrador and more still for Cape Breton but none for Bonavista until
John Mason’s map of 1616.
As regards Mason's map it is, comparatively, of recent date. The
supposition that he borrowed from an older map the words which indicate
Bonavista as the landfall is a supposition and no more. The name Bona-
vista may have originally suggested in later years the kindred bit differ-
ent idea of prima vista, for no previous map bas been found which contains
a similar statement. Cabot’s discovery was in 1497 and this map was
published one hundred and nineteen years after, in 1616. Very many
maps were made and were engraved and published in the interim but
none until Mason’s contained such a legend. His map has therefore not
the authority of the earlier maps to support it.
Judge Prowse evidently feels the difficulty that Bonavista is not
Italian, but Portuguese ; to which another may be added that Cabot, in
an English ship, with an English crew, and under an English royal
charter, would not be likely to give any but an English name to his land-
fall. As repeatedly pointed out by the writerin 1894, and previously by
the Rev. Dr. Patterson in the “Transactions” of this society for 1890, the
sast coast of Newfoundland was named by the Portuguese.® Bonavista is
a Portuguese word, and the fact is moreover strongly antagonistic to
Judge Prowse’s theory that it is not laid down on any map until Gaspar
Viegas’ in 1534, that is for thirty-seven years after Cabot’s discovery,
Although the whole east coast before that year was studded with names
that one is absent, This peculiar difficulty seems to have suggested Judge
Prowse’s remark that Cabot may not have named it, though he dis-
covered it. If so, it is a unique instance of a discoverer not naming his
landfall.
Again, Judge Prowse observes that Viegas must have got the name
from sailors on the coast, and not from the geographers. Viegas was
himself a geographer, and it could only be from sailors to the coast that
any information could be had about the coast. He says Viegas translated
DA a SL ANS met Sst
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[s. B. DAWSON]
THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 7
soe
the original Italian into Portuguese, but he does not show that there
ever was an original Italian, He assumes that there must have been
one, which is the very thing to be proved. He says Viegas gives the
name as Boavista, but he has not noticed that in Portuguese, after the
vowel, the n is sounded, though not written, as on that very map, do
Breto for Breton, and, on Reinel’s map, Joha for Johan and Boaventura
for Bonaventura. The tilde over the vowel may be omitted, but the n is
sounded all the same.
[ venture to think, therefore, that Judge Prowse has not proved his
thesis. Beyond doubt there was, in the uncritical time before Biddle
wrote in 1833, a general assumption that Newfoundland was the landfall,
and the effects of’ this are still felt in general literature ; and on looking
at a map one is led to think that Cabot would have steered for New-
foundland, without remembering that the whole ocean was to him a
perfect blank, a veil behind which lay he knew not what.
And here again, in this most natural supposition, is another of Lord
Bacon’s “idols of the tribe.” The thing which looks so plausible on our
modern maps, with all our modern knowledge, is not likely to have
happened to a ship feeling her way over an unknown and unquiet ocean,
As Pasqualigo describes the voyage from Cabot’s own lips, “he wandered
about for a long time, and at length hit upon land”; but we sit down to
an atlas and trace the shortest course, as if Cabot, knowing where he was
going, made a course, as the crow flies, straight to an objective point,
Such evidence from presupptions and probabilities cannot weigh against
the positive evidence adduced for Cape Breton,
During the last few months Mr. Henry Harrisse’ has published a new
work on the Cabots, and although, in his first book, Jean et Sébastien
Cabot, he advocated Cape Breton, he adheres to his second theory of the
landfall and places it in Labrador at or near Cape Chidley. I cannot
sufficiently express my obligations to Mr, Harrisse, for he has made these
studies possible to me by his industry and research, and by republishing
so many original documents. I have had all the advantages of Mr. Har-
risse’s learning and labour; but the adventitious circumstance of having
been born among the localities under discussion, and therefore familiar
with them from boyhood, compels me to see that Mr. Harrisse’s judgment
upon his materials is misled by the absence of a personal knowledge of
the northeast coast of America. The monograph of 1894 pointed out
some of the misconceptions which led him astray. 'This last book aftords
other instances. Mr. Ganong’s paper in the “Transactions” of this
society for 1889, set him right, as he frankly admits, about Prince Edward
Island, but in going to Cape Chidley he has fallen into a new set of
errors, and in discussing these the Labrador theory must be incidentally
discussed, (See Appendix A, Labrador.)
Mr. Harrisse, in attempting to disprove his earlier theory of the Cape
SESE Se ts BSE = Ey IIs a FEET NO
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1
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|
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‘
8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
Breton landfall, says that in June and July navigation all round New-
foundland and the Gulf of St, Lawrence is impeded by fogs, icebergs and
undercurrents ; therefore Cabot could not have reached Cape Breton at
the time stated. Addressing Canadians, it is not necessary to waste time
on this astonishing error; but the more wonderful part of it is that
therefore My, Harrisse thinks that northern Labrador was the landfall,
as if, while the St. Lawrence was blocked, that coast was free from ice at
that season, whereas, while the ports of Quebec and Montreal are crowded
with ocean vessels, there is there a procession of icebergs and _ field-ice
1,000 miles long coming down the Arctic current from the north. This
is so well known here that in 1886 the Minister of Marine did not send
sailing instructions to Capt. Gordon until June 22nd, and the steamship
“Alert” did not leave Halifax for Labrador until June 24th. He re-
ported* that the season was unusually early. He left Blane Sablon, in
the Strait of’ Belle Isle, on the 2vch of June, and steamed along the coast.
On the 30th he met large numbers of small icebergs; on July Ist he
passed 2 number of large bergs, one being 170 feet high On July 2nd
he got into field-ice, and had to lie on the outer edge of it until the
weather clexsed. On that day he saw many more bergs, some very close
to the ship. He was then sixty miles south of Cape Mugford, north of
which point Mr, Harrisse places Cabot’s landfall in 1497. He found there
heavy tield-ice, which extended all along the coast to Cape Chidley, packed
tight for fifteen miles off the shore, with a * bordage ” of'slack ice ten miles
further out. That was an early season, and jt was July 2nd; but John
Jabot told Raimondo di Soncino that “the land he found was excellent,
‘aad the climate temperate, suggesting that brazil wood and silk grow
* there,” and that on June 24th.
Mr. Harrisse has not distinguished sufticiently between the two voy-
ages,” and makes 1497 to be the year of the long coasting voyage, but so
little does he realize what the coast of Labrador is, that in order to get Cabot
back in London on the 10th of August (where he, in fact, was), he thinks
the landfail must have been earlier. That is to say, this landfall, impos-
sible on the 2nd of July in an exceptionally early season, he thinks was
made much earlier than June 24th ; and if, as he supposes, Cabot made
in 1497 the long coasting voyage to Flor .a, his Jandfall must indeed
have been very much earlier than June 24th, because, beyond all cavil,
he was present in London on August 10th, 1497."
Among the causes which Mr. Harrisse assigns as contributing to
delay Cabot’s progress is the supposed fact that ‘‘in those days, particu-
“larly when coasting in unknown regions, anchor was cast at sundown,
“and sailing renewed again only with daylight the next morning.” The
impossibility of a vessel coasting along northern Labrador and anchoring
out every night on a coast where field-ice and enormous bergs are sweep-
ing down with the Arctic current, is evident. No doubt vessels have to
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[s. B. DAWsoN] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 9
run into a harbour or under the lee of an island every night to get shel-
ter, and sometimes they have to make fast to a piece of ice ; but this very
necessity is another indication of where the landfall could not have been,
for there is no trace of such expedients in the records of the first voyage,
Another note of the landfall is John Cabot’s statement to Pasqualigo,
immediately after his return, that he saw. “ two islands” ; whereas there
the whole coast is fringed by an archipelago of barren and rocky islands,
where trees do not grow. These are shown only on the large charts, and
Writers not conversant with the coast are misled by the small scale maps
in atlases. The coast line is, moreover, 1,000 to 4,000 feet high, steep and
precipitous, with a swell which in calm weather (see Appendix A, p. 20)
breaks over islands thirty feet high. This formidable and rugged coast,
ice-encumbered and frequently lashed ‘with the heaviest sea known to
sailors, cannot, in our view, be the land “with an excellent and temperate
“climate,” where silk and dye-woods grow, as described by Cabot ;
but Mr. Harrisse dismisses the difticulty by quoting from the “ Kneyelo-
pedia Britannica” the short but graphic phrase, “In Labrador summer
“is brief but lovely.” (See Appendix A, Labrador.)
Mr. Harrisse has read books on Labrador but the want of’ local
knowledge still obscures his conclusions, THe finds another proof of the
Labrador landfall in the abundance of fish reported by Cabot. This
leads him to r-mark that “however plentiful codfish may be on the banks
‘of Newfoundland the quantity is surpassed near the entrance of
“ Hudson's Strait. Modern explorers report that there cod and salmon
“ form in many places a living mass, a vast ocean of living slime, which
* accumulates on the banks of Northern Labrador and the spot noted for
“its amazing quantity of tish is the vicinity of Cape Chidleigh, which as
“the above details and other reasons seem to indicate as the place visited
“by John Cabot in 1497.”
This is a curious misconception. Mr. Harrisse is doubtless alluding
to Prof. Hind as “the modern explorer,” but neither Prof. Hind nor any
one who borrows his graphic phrase applies the expression “ living slime”
to the salmon and cod, but to the infusoria and other minute organisms
with which the Arctic current abounds, and which constitute the food of
the immense number of fish in those waters and the attraction which
draws them there. (See Appendix B, Living Slime). The Arctic current
there and off Newfoundland is the great feeding ground for whales and
also for the small fish upon which the cod feed, The fishermen are now
pushing their operations further north on the Labrador coasts as the cod
begin to be less plentiful in the bays of Newfoundland, and in a few years
may follow the fish as far as Cape Chidley, where the fishing season is
very much later, but the cod fishing until recently was solely east and
south of Newfoundland. Again, in dwelling upon the amazing quantity
of codfish as a crucial indication of the true landfall, Mr. Harrisse has
2
|
ar Se
10 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
conclusively disproved his main thesis; for the codfish do not arrive at
Cape Chidley, until August 15th, five days after John Cabot is known
to have been in London. In fact, the codfish do riot approach any part ,
of Northern Labrador before July 20th. In Appendix G is given a table
of the movement of the fish along the coast, extracted from Prof. Hind’s
evidence before the Fishery Commission of the Treaty of Washington,
This disposes of the whole of Labrador as a probable landfall.
Such errors as these are palpable to most Canadians, but they mis-
lead other people ; and even some of our own people, reading in the cur-
sory manner now in vogue, do not notice them, but accept Mr, Tarrisse’s
conclusions without stopping to examine the foundations on which they are
built. In pointing them out, [ have incidentally indicated the reasons i
which compel me to reject Labrador as the landfall of 1497. As to
Newfoundland and Bonavista, Mr, Harrisse does not even mention, still
less discuss them, so far, in his opinion, are they out of the question ; and 4
the same may be said of an the students, excepting Judge Prowse and
Bishop Howley, who since Biddle have been examining the subject in any
SEU a Sa pe oe peater
ET
a ea Rage ae
detailed way.
I shall not again go over the ground of the monograph of 1894. ‘
Since thst was written 1 have not found anything to shake the conclusions
then adopted, and the positive arguments in favour of Cape Breton are i
therein fully set forth. Those conclusions were not to any considerable
extent novel, Very little which is new could, at this late period of the
discussion, be added, sceing that the subject has been the battlefield of
fifty years of controversy. The voluminous references" indicated the
materials upon which the conclusions were founded, In the “ Trans-
actions” of this society Professor Ganong" had shown that the large
island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence drawn on the old maps could not have
been Prince Edward Island, and Mr. Joseph Pope, in his Jacques Carticr
(published 1890), had followed him. Dr, Patterson had published, in the
same “Transactions” (1890), a valuable monograph upon the Portuguese
discoveries on the northeast coast of America, and Dr, Bourinot in 1892
had treated of the Cabot voyages in his monograph on Cape Breton.
The European, as well as the American authorities who argued for a
landfall on the island of Cape Breton placed it at Cape North, excepting
only Mr. Harrisse, who, in his first book, Jean et Sébastien Cabot, decided
| for Cape Percy ; and, it) Mr. Harrisse had adhered to that opinion, there
H would have been little practical difference between his conclusions and those
of the writer, but in his later books he transferred the landfall to Labrador,
and, lastly, to the absolutely impossible Cape Chidley, All the writers
i who have hitherto advocated the claims of Cape Breton have done so
i under the influence of the map of 1544; and those who have argued for
Labrador appear to me to have been unduly influenced by statements
concerning the voyages of 1498 found in Peter Martyr, Ramusio, Gomara
and others who wrote long subsequently to the date of the discovery.
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[s. B. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 11
The contour of the island of Cape Breton on the map of 1544 is
exceedingly inaccurate ; in fact it is not shown to be an island ; but the
prima vista marked on it is yet at its easternmost point as Mr. Harrisse
correctly noticed in his first book (see Appendix C, Cape North), The
writer, in advocating Cape Breton rather than Cape Percy, was guided
by the fact that Cape Breton is not only the easternmost point, but is a
name which appears on all the old maps and is found in all the old writers
from 1514 down to the present day. Excepting Cape Race there is no
name so persistent and, when it is considered how tenaciously names
given in early days cling to localities, even under the changing corrup-
tions of widely different languages, '' it will appear that the oldest and
the only invariably persistent name on the coast is far more likely to be
the landfall, seeing that it also conforms to all other conditions and that
so many other circumstances point to it. The distance in a direct line
between Cape Breton and Cape Percy is only fifteen miles, and, though
Cape Breton extends further to the east. there is not much to choose be-
tween them, were it not thet Cape Percy is a new and recent name and that
the ancient name must indicate the ancient landmark. But the conclusive
argument in the writer’s mind was from actual obser vation, that in sailing
into the Gulf either the high land of Newfoundland will be seen on the
right or the high land of' ¢ ‘ape Enfumé on the left before Cape North will
be seen at all. It is like sailing into an acute angle, either one side or the
other will be seen before the apex.
While pointing out a few of the writers from whom I have derived
the most assistance I should especially repeat my obligations to Mr.
Clements R. Markham’s introduction to the volume of the Hakluyt Society
for 1893, and, quite recently, an article by the same writer in the Journal of
the Royal Geographical Society for 1892 has fallen into my hands.
These seem to me to be the most fruitful contributions to the elucidation
of this vexed question. Mr.Markham concurs with M. D’Avezac in dwell-
ing on the cardinal importance of the map of Juan de La Cosa in the con-
troversy ; for in that most precious of all sartographical relics we have
bey nd reasonable doubt, as Markham observes, a transcript of Joha
Cabot's own map. A reference to the monograph of 1894 will show how
strongly my argument Icans upon that contemporary av .hority.
While thus again acknowledging some of the sources from whence
my conclusions have mainly been gathered, I would also remark that all
who have reviewed or noticed my monograph of 1894 have overlooked
one or two points init which I take the opportunity of again emphasizing,
and I do so because it is really in these wherein my method of investiga-
tion differs from that of every predecessor. I did not, and do not now,
as some persons assume, build my conclusions on the so-called Cabot map
of 164. I arrived at my conclusions in a way which, strange though it
be, was not in this question followed before, I adopted the principle, so
}
12 * ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
q
familiar in New Testament criticism, of’ first studying the contemporary }
documents solely, and apart from all comments and later documents and, ;
in that way, what was before o»scure became clear. I then took the :
map of La Cosa (Appendix D, L:» Cosa’s map), and made it the pivot of 3
my studies, and thus I happened to notice first the bearing of the name {
Cavo descubierto. Having, therefore, built my foundation upon these i
contemporary documents, I was ready to accept from any other quarter i
confirmatory evidence ; from the map of 1544 as well as from any other
map. I think it essential to point this out; because, in my view, if there i
be any merit or any originality in the monograph of 184, it is in these 4
particulars chiefly that it must reside. 4
Before closing my paper I would like to dwell for a moment upon a :
singular misconception which has arisen in the minds of some of our ;
French fellow-countrymen, and which has found expression in news- }
papers under the heading of ‘Cartier versus Cabot’; as if these studies ‘
and conclusions in the least degree derogated from Cartier’s fame as the 3
discoverer of Canada. The monograph of 1894 did the very reverse; for
it set out to demonstrate the falsity of the theory that Cabot had entered
the gulf. It proved by the maps that, until Cartier sailed into the gulf,
it was not known at all; and that the so-called Cabot map of 1544 em-
bodied Cartier’s discoveries ; and, moreover, that, whatever the fishermen
may have known, previous to that time Newfoundland was supposed by
the cartographers and geographers to be a part of the main continent.
Thus it vindicated for Cartier what many other writers had been under-
mining, and it aimed to correct those false views of history which, to the
detriment of Cartier’s fame, were insidiously creeping into the text-books.
But while to Cartier must be awarded the discovery of the Gulf and
River St. Lawrence, he did not discover any portion of the sea coast of
America. No writer claims that for him. That Cabot discovered the
northe:st coast is as much beyond question as any historical fact can be.
That is not open to dispute, though whether the landfall was at Cape
Breton, Labrador or Newfoundland may be yet a fair ground for discus-
sion. Cabot’s discovery is not an English and French question ; for it
is impossible for any writer to be more French than Champlain, Charle-
voix, Ferland and Laverdiére. They assign to John Cabot the discovery
of Labrador in 1497. Who can, in our community, be more French than
D’ Avezac—the learned and profound scholar of the Geographical Society
of Paris ?—yet he maintained that Cabot’s Island of St. John was Prince
Edward Island. Le Canada Francais is surely a French publication—
) and Canadian as well,—and yet the Abbé Beaudoin, in October, 1888,
maintained in much detail the thesis that Prince Edward Island was dis-
i
h
PER th DEC PS it IE AEDS Wt Gideon te
covered by Cabot in 1497, and named St. John by him, If so, Cabot,
@ and not Cartier, was the discoverer of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and of
B Canada in a sense that no member of this society has ever held. These
uy.
nd,
the
, of
me
E8C
‘ter
her
ere
1ese
yn a
our
2WS-
dies
the
for
ered
rulf,
-em-
‘men
d by
vent.
nder-
b the
Bich Wie Sc RR A Soli Ha
|
}
4
[s. E. DAWSON ] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 13
are all French authorities. We may dispute their theses, but not their
nationality ; and I wish particularly to insist on the fact that D’Avezac—
a Frenchman to the innermost core—accepts in the fullest degree the
authenticity of the so-called Cabot map of 1544, which I, as well as
many others who have written upon the subject, could not accept to the
same extent.
Again, Cartier did not discover Cape Breton, nor Newfoundland, nor
Labrador. They were discovered thirty-five years before he came on
the coast. He came to a coast mapped and named. He first touched at
Bonavista and although he named a few places not (Appendix EK, Jacques
Cartier) on the maps, he found the coast named on his course as far, at
least, as Old Fort Bay on the Canadian Labrador. The Strait of’ Belle-
Isle was then, and for 200 years after, known as La Grande Baie; and
Old Fort Bay (Msquimaux Bay on some maps) was a port frequented by
French and Basque fishermen, It was known to Jacques Cartier, as well
as to all sailors of that day, as Brest, and after he had touched there on
his first voyage inwards he says himself that on proceeding further
inwards, he found at Shecatica a vessel from LaRochelle looking for the
port of Brest, her destined harbour, which she had oversailed in the night.
Cartier expresses no surprise at meeting her as if it were anything un-
common.
Then again Cartier did not discover Cape Breton, for, as early as 1504,
Bretons, and Basques, and Portuguese fishermen began to swarm all along
these shores. On his first voyage Carter sailed in and out by Belle-Isle.
On his second he sailed in by Belle-Isle but he sailed out by St. Paul's and
when he arrived at St. Pierre Miquelon he simply remarks that he found
many fishing vessels there. These are Cartier’s own statements and
surely he must be permitted to know more about the matter than any one
else, nor can we doubt either his nationality or his patriotism.
foundland and Cape Breton, and no person ever asserted that Cartier dis-
covered any one of them. The fact is patent that the whole east coast of
North America was well known long before Cartier. Putting aside all
the work of the Corte Reals and other Portuguese mariners, Verrazano
sailed along it in 1524 and the mappe monde of Hieronimus de Verrazano
of 1529 still exists in the Museo Borgiano at Rome. That map shows the
whole coast with a closed line. There is no Gulf of St. Lawrence, but
there is the cape of Cape Breton, named and in its right place. Then
there was Estevan Gomez in 1525—beyond all doubt he sailed along the
coast and saw Cape Breton and he followed along the coast of the islaud
and saw Cape Enfumé, with its smoke like mists rising, as now, up
the face of the cliffs, a sight never to be mistaken for anything else ; and
he crossed the strait, supposing it to be a bay, from St. Paul to Cape Ray,
and sailed along the south shore of Newfoundland homewards. All these
Three localities of first discovery are alone before us, Labrador, New-
!
SS Os at as
BE AEA Sg
\
14 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
things and many more Cartier could not help knowing. He had probably
been out on the coast before or he would not have been chosen as
captain, If then, any one, a member of' this society or not, should claim
Cape Breton as the landfall of John Cabot, let it not be thought to
derogate from the merit of Jacques Cartier but rather to establish it.
SUMMARY.
As the commemoration of John Cabot’s achievement is a subject now
present in the public mind and, inasmuch as the monograph to which
this paper is a sequel was published two years ago and in the first or
quarto series of Transactions of this Society, it may not be amiss to
recapitulate shortly the various lines of reasoning which led the writer
to advocate the Cape Breton landfall. These lines are convergent and
are not dependent one upon another, so that the refutation of one will
not involve a rejection of the result. Each argument is good pro tanto
and when a number of independent lines of thought lead to one result
the correctness of that result attains to a very high degree of probability.
The question is the landfall of the first of two voyages admitted to
have been made in 1497 and 1498 ; and three localities have been put for-
ward as entitled to the distinction of being the place where (putting aside
the Northmen) Europeans first landed on this continent, ‘These are (1)
some point on the Labrador coast, and specially Cape Chidley ; (2) Bona-
vista, on the coast of Newfoundland; and (3) Cape North, or Cape
Breton, on Cape Breton Island,
It was shown that a separate study of the contemporary documents
revealed the fact that the first voyage was on a western course and to a
landfall in a pleasant and temperate climate; and a separate study of the
later documents proved that they were concerned only with a voyage on
a northern and northwestern course, by way of Iceland, to a region of ice
and continual daylight. The striking contrasts between the two voyages
were set forthin detail, and it was shown that Labrador corresponded
with the conditions of the second voyage alone.
The landfall of the first voyage had been described on December
18th, 1497, from the lips of John Cabot himself by a distinguished Italian
envoy in a letter to his master, the Duke of Milan, as follows: “They say
“that there the land is excellent and the climate temperate, suggesting
“ that brasil and silk grow there.” This excluded Labrador (see Appen-
dix A) from the question. Furthermore, upon these representations a
large expedition sailed in the following year, 1498, with a view to trade
and settlement, and reached a region of frost and ice. It was argued
that any one who had once seen the coast of Labrador would not have
taken an expedition of 300 men there to settle and trade on the coast.
Labrador being excluded, La Cosa’s map (see Appendix D) was
taken and its easternmost named point was shown to be our Cape Race.
Xi daecedoves Ui etreae it
Wa voce
Saat
bly
| as
aim
t to
now
hich
st or
ss to
rriter
t and
» will
tanto
result
bility.
ted to
it for-
r aside
re (1)
Bona-
Cape
ments
dtoa
of the
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of ice
oyages
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Italian
ey say
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argued
t have
)) was
> Race.
[s. B. DAWSON ] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 18
That point was shown to be the key of the question, and pains were taken
to make it clear to anyone who has been upon the coast, or who would
attentively study a chart of the North Atlantic in connection with Ua
Cosa’s map. In that way it became evident that the coast named and
marked out by English flags could be none other than the south coast of
Newfoundland and the adjacent coast to the southwest.
Attention was then called to the fact that the coast line north of
Cape Race (that is the east coast of Newfoundland) had neither name
nor flag—that the coast line there was drawn with a firm line and was
totally different from the remarkably indented eastern outline of New-
foundland discovered by Corte Real and shown upon the Portuguese
maps continuously from the year 1501, that the line could not be the line
of a discovered ‘coast and nothing in North America corresponded to it.
It was explained by a theory, not original with the writer, that the lines
of unvisited territory were taken from Toscanelli’s map of Asia on which
Columbus had sailed ; for at that time America was not known save as
the western coast of Asia and La Cosa’s map was a mapa mundi, or a
representation of all the geographical knowledge of the time. In this
way Bonavista and the whole east coast of Newfoundland was excluded
as well as Labrador.
Dealing then with La Cosa’s map as one of the south coast of New-
foundland, the methods of the old map-makers were inquired into, and
in an appendix, a long extract from the works of Samuel de Champlain
was given, setting forth the whole subject in detail and showing that the
old cartographers invariably drew their charts upon a magnetic meridian,
Champlain bad illustrated his thesis by two maps of these very same
regions ; one upon a true meridian, as we draw maps now, and one upon
au magnetic meridian, as drawn then for the use of sailors. Sketches
from these two maps were given, confined to the coast-line in question,
and it was shown that the bearing of Cape Breton from Cape Race was
west, as on La Cosa’s map, but west-southwest on maps like ours, as in
truth it is.
The question of the magnetic variation was also considered, and the
fact that it had been first observed by Columbus, only five years before,
when sailing on a parallel where the variation was slight. Attention was
directed to the fact that in the latitudes of Cabot’s course the vari-
ation was very much greater and, at a point in mid-ocean, increased
‘apidly, and also that a steady and strong currert (the Arctic current)
set to the south, with a high probability of thick weather ; all of which
would ten” .o throw a sailor, feeling his way over an unknown sea, to
the south in any westerly course,
Studying La Cosa’s map, it was noticed that the line of names on the
coast commenced with Cape Race (Cavo de Ynglaterra) and terminated
with Cavo Descubierto. The latter vame itself, it was argued, indicated
16 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
the landfall —it was the prima terra vista—there was no other meaning
to the name than the discovered cape; and as this map of La Cosa’s was,
beyond reasonable doubt, based on John Cabot’s own map which Pedro
de Ayala the Spanish ambassador had from him and promised, in July,
1498, to send to King Ferdinand, we have here John Cabot indicating his
own landfall in a Spanish translation,
The so-called “Sebastian Cabot map” of 1544 then became of’ inter-
est, for it placed the prima tierra vista on the northeasiernmost point of
Cape Breton, and, in the printed legend, this point was further identified
by an island called St. John, It was then shown, by the whole sequence
of maps, that Cape Breton was a persistent and continuous name on the
maps from the earliest times and that it was always attended by an island
of St. John, which island was always on the Atlantic coast in clo.e
proximity. The island itself’ was shown to be on Pedro Reinel’s map of
1505, and it was of a unique triangular shape, corresponding to that of’
Scatari Island, near Cape Breton,
These were the main lines of reasoning, and they were reinforced in
very many ways and illustrated by tracings. Much space was also given
to answers to possible objections and demonstrations of the untenability
of conflicting theories. ‘To go over these again would be to rewrite the
monograph,
In closing this paper it is necessary to state that the Royal Society
of Canada has very properly not committed itself to an Opinion upon the
place of the landfall in deciding to commemorate Cabot’s great achieve-
The position of the society is laid down in the report, and will be
ment.
The opinion advocated
found at length in the published Proceedings.
is, no doubt, held by many of the members, but it is open to others
to hold to any landfall they may think more probable; and it is not
likely that there will be absolute uniformity of opinion upon this
point, any more than there is upon the identity of the island, Guanahani,
which was the landfall of the great admiral.”
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APPENDIX A.
THe ATLANTIC COAST or LABRADOR,
John Cabot, within five months after his return from his first voyage,
and before he had started on the second, stated that the land he had dis-
covered was excellent and the climate temperate such as gave promise of
producing silk and dye-woods. The following catena of authorities will
show that Labrador could not have been the coast which was the subject
of John Cabot’s eulogy. the evidence the fact must be taken
into account that ice and icebergs were novelties to sailor
iences were limited to the seas then known and that
will enter the Labrador ice pack without anxiety ;
would a sight so unaccustomed haye IMpress¢
Yet in none of’ the contemporary documents is there any
or any mention which suggests it; but when we take up the later
accounts, derived from Sebastian Cabot. we tind special stress laid upon
the gigantic “ pieces of ice found swimming in the sea,” as of’ something
new and unusual,
In weighing
‘'s Whose exper-
no one, even now,
how much more then
«| the sailors of those days!
allusion to ice
Lest it may be conjectured that some ¢
to modify the physical conditions of Lab
of the earliest sailors are included.
the milder regions of southern Lab
“excellent soil,”
woods :
hange in climate has occurred
‘ador, extracts from the reports
Jacques Cartier’s experience was in
rador. This is his opinion of the
, . Cal , ov) , , ig * oille r
reported by Cabot as Siving promise of silk and dye-
JACQUES CARTIER’S Firs Voyaag, 1534. Frou AK uy’.
“If the soile were as good as the
‘“commoditee ; but it is not to be
Ob g
harboroughes ‘ure, it were a great
called the new land, but rather stones
and wilde cragges, and a place fit for wilde beastes, for in all the North
“Island I did not see a cart-load of' good earth; yet went I on shoare in
“many places, and in the Island of White Sand there is nothing else but
“mosse and small thornes, scattered here and there, withered and dry.
“To be short, I believe that this was the land that God allotted to Caine,”
The candid sailor expresses himself strongly. It is not. « soile,” and
should not be called “land,” but rather « stones and wilde cragges,”’
Captain Luke Fox’s experiences of Cape Chidley in 1631 are as fol-
lows: He made the ‘ape on June 22nd, “ which to do I stood over as
‘“ neere as I could for ice that was at least six leagues off.” He was try-
ing to enter Hudson's Strait, but he never thought of anchoring, as Mr,
Harrisse thinks pilots always did in those days, and perhaps they did in
southern seas. He adopted the usual course, “ We made fast to a piece
“ot ice.” Fox found the strait blocked, but pushed into the ice, and
drifted with it in the ebb and flow of the tide. He got clear about July
3rd, and on the 8th he weathered out a gale by again making fast to a
piece of ice. In the same year, 1631, Captain James was attempting at
the same time to enter the strait. He sighted Cape Chidley on June 24th,
while fast beset in the ice, “not being able to see an acre of sea from top-
“mast head.” It was not until the 20th of July that he got into a little
open water, and beg: The experiences of
Davis and Baffin Yy Were similar,
an to make way westward.
and Frobisher around Cape Chidle
Sec. II., 1896, 2,
a a i eae z
18 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
Further down the coast the Moravian Brethren have had settlements
for 120 years. There are now five, at intervals along the coast, where
they carry on missions to the Eskimo, These are some of their experi-
ences, extracted from their published reports :
[In 1770 their vessel arrived on July 24th ; in 1771 the date of arrival
was August 9th. “ During the latter part of the voyage they were often
‘ob lived to run into bays, between numberless ish ids and sunken rocks,
‘and being surrounded at times by vast mountains of ice and ice-tields,
“ threatening momentary destruction to the vessel.’ In 1816, “on 9 uch-
“ing the drift ice, on the 16th of July, Captain Fraser found it to extend
‘to a distance of full 200 miles from the coast, and after attempting in
* vain to tind a passage through it, first to Hopedale, then to Nain, and
* Jastly to Okak, he found himself by degrees completely enclosed by the
‘ice On August 30th of the same year * the whole coast was entirely
‘ choked up by the ice.” The following year the vessel got into the ice
on July 7th, and on July 14th they saw “land sixty miles south of Hope-
dale, but could not penetrate the pack, and had to make fast to an ice-
tield until the I8th, but soon after had to make fast to another field.
Then a fearful storm came on, and they drifted helpless in the pack.
They arrived on August 9th.
Inthe year 1819 the “ Harmony” could not reach Okal until August
20th, * the coast was everywhere choked up with ice.’ In 1826 the ice
extended 400 miles from the land, In 1832 the vessel reached the ice
on July 6th and got through to Hopedale on July 24th after some
thrilling experiences. In 1836 the “ Harmony” encountered the ice
on June 24th, and it was August 4th when she reached Hopedale,
where the captain learned that the ice had moved away only two days
before.
These are a few of many experiences reported, and it should be
remembered that the vessels of the mission are built to encounter ice and
manned by crews familiar with ice navigation. It is stated by experi-
enced pilots who, for thirty years have “navigated that coast, that if a
vessel can get through the ice-pack and reach “ the inside track,” as they
call it, that is the open belt of water between the land and ice, it is
possible on that part of the coast south of Cape Harrison to get along
ibout the 20th June. Beyond Cape Harrison on northern
the shore :
crossing’
Labrador navigation is not possible until July 20th. It is in
the drifting ice that the Moravian ships were delayed, and the same
cause would have prevented the little “ Matthew” from making a land-
fall at Labrador.
Professor Packard in his Journal of Two Summer Cruises to the
Labrador Coast, velates that on July 4th they were blocked for days, ice-
bound in Square Harbour, not far from the Strait of Belle Isle. THe
says, “ we could easily wall ashore over the floe-ice ; some of the floes were
‘higher than our vessel’s rail, it being next to impossible to force our boat
“through the too narrow leads between the cakes.” They got out of
“ t! oir ice prison on July 15th. Sailing further up the coast in the inner
track he Says that the ice belt was a few miles aw ay * thick enough to
walk upon.’ The ice had been running down the coast from 22nd June to
August 22nd to their personal know led ,aund it began earlier and con-
tinued later, and from the hills behind ‘Hopedale they could see the ice-
belt ten miles out to sea but bergs were visible all along the coast. The
ice-field was eighty-five miles wide. Dr. Grenfell of the Labrador Mission
i ibe ati tia ecole absiceicerehi bees cae hnesi
Ee ATT SINC om baat)
lements
he where
° experi
f arrival
re often
aT rocks,
ve-tields,
mn vreach-
o extend
npung in
Nain, and
xd by the
s entirely
to the ice
of Hope-
to an ice-
ther field.
the pack,
til August
26 the ice
ed the ice
iter some
od the ice
Hopedale,
Vv two di Lys
should be
ater ice and
by trae
t. that if
Me” as hey
: ice, it 18
get along
n “northern
in crossing
1 the same
ing a land-
uises to the
ior days, 1Ce-
le Isle. He
he floes were
sree our boat
r got out of
in the inner
k enough to
2nd June to
jer and con-
see the ice-
Leoast. The
fador Mission
as Set eee
cis ap aS RNS
Dor Fate 9 ee ty tet st oe
Soak inns cinklnet ca. cies dA ET te bat ae nk an
[s. B. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF .ilE CABOTS
19
describes the coast in his ‘* V ikings of To-day” as follows,
the “ Encyclopedia Britannica ’ "he adopts the opinion given;
‘Sterile aad forbidding it lies among fogs and icebergs, famous
“only besides for dogs and cod, ‘God made this country last’ says an
6 ol! navigator,”
‘As il MT
By quoting
ent abode for civilized man, says the * Eneyelopwedia
ss Butennies ' La. ador is on the whole one of the most uninviting spots
“on the face of the earth. The Atlantic coast is the edge of a vast
i “ solitude of rocky hills, split and blasted by frost and beaten by waves,
‘Headlands grim and naked, tower over the waters—often fantastic and
“ picturesque in shape, while ‘miles and miles of rocky precipices or tame
“ monotonous slopes alternate with stony valleys, winding away among
“the blue hills of the interior.”
On July 1th Dr. Grenfell crossed the Strait of Belle Isle. Ie
thus describes it: “As we rounded Cape Bauld a most magnificent
“crimson light lit up the whole horizon, Against it stoed out many
“ stately icebergs, rising weird and ghostly from che decp purple of the
“sea, One of immense height looked like some g' gantic cathedral, As
“we brought the hills and steep cliffs of Labrador into view we found
‘there was still much snow in the gulfs and
crevices, while it was
“ necessary
auvefully to thread our way among the numbe 1S of icebergs
“ which up ts this very week had | been b'seking the straits.’
The following is from the “Newfoundland and Labrador Pilot,”
published by the British Admiralty (Cape St. Lewis to Cape Chidley),
page 381:
“The northeast coust of
Labrador is extremely barren and rug-
“ged. 7%
The hills fall steeply to the sea, often in cliffs with ragged,
“rocky points, the exception being the strand on each side of Cape
ee the only sandy beach of any extent on the whole coast as
. for as Nain.’
‘The climate on the outer coast is rigorous in the extreme, so that
* vegetables are only raised with great difficulty and rarely reach matur-
“ity. Frost may occur at any time of the year, and snow was experi-
“enced in the neighbourhood of Indian Harbour in July, August and
“ September of 1875. * * * Large patches of snow, five or six feet
“ deep, were lying in the valleys along the whole coast in the middle of
July, 1575, and some of them had not disappeared when the first large
“ fall of snow occurred in September,”
Field ice remains in the vicinity of Greedy Harbour until about
“ the middle of July, soon after which the fishing fleet are enabled to sail
“northward. * * * Icebergs may be encountered all the year round,
“ but are most numerous from June till August.”
The strength of this argument is not atfected by the fact that New-
foundland and Dundee sealers go into the ice in spring after seals. They
are fitted for it and strengthened specially, and for many years have been
propelled by steam. The seals are killed on the ice, and where there is
no ice there are no seals. Cabot knew none of those things.
never have seen an iceberg or sailed among ice,
“unfitted for such work. If
He could
and his little vessel was
Labrador had been his landfall he would
necessarily have made novel and startling experiences and could not have
failed to record them. Such experiences were encountered and recorded
on the second voyage. It is simply incredible that if John Cabot had
ever seen the coast of Labrador he would have taken out an expedition
20 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
of three hundred souls and steered tothe north and northwest with them,
It was because he knew nothing of the Labrador ice-pack that he steered
to make a northwest passage. What they found then is recorded in
Peter Martyr and Gomara.
The following description of the coast is from Mr. A. P. Low's report
to the Director of the Geological Survey, 1896 :
“ Along the Atlantic coast the land rises abruptly inland, almost
* every where to altitudes varying from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet, from the
“ Straits of Belle Isle to the vicinity of Nain. To the northward of Nain
“ the coast range is much higher, and in the neighbourhood of Nachvak
“ Bay, ranges of shi wp, unglaciated mountains rise abruptly from the :
“sea, to heights varying from 2,500 feet to 4,000 feet ; while farther
“north they are reported to culminate in peaks of 6,000 feet, a few miles
“inland. With aslight decrease in height, this range continues north-
* ward, to the barren islands at Cape C hudleigh.’
This is not such a coast as a sailor would care to anchor alongside of,
if indeed such places have anchorages ; but Admiral Bayfield’s ‘descrip-
tion of the swell on the Labrador coast completes the picture. It is taken
from “ Hatton and Harvey’s Newfoundland,” p. 384:
‘T never saw anything more grand and wildly beautiful than the
** tremendous swell which often comes in without wind, rolling slowly
‘but irresistibly in from the sea, as if moved by some unseen power,
“ rearing itself up like a wall of water as it appro: aches the scraggy sides
“ of the islands, moving on faster and faster as it nears the shore, until at
“ last it bursts with fury over islets thirty feet high, or sends up foam
“and spray, sparkling in the sunbeams, fifty feet up the sides of the p.e-
“ cipices. I can compare the roar of the surf in a calm night to nothing
“ less than the falls of Niagara.”
Summer is indeed, as Mr. Harrisse says, “ brief but lovely “—-lovely,
when the field ice is gone, with the deep purple of the sea and with the
rose and violet sheen of the stately bergs and with the black beetling
precipices and the foam of the breakers combing over the rocky islets—
a stern and soleinn loveliness, yet tender at rare moments in its delicate
tints of colour; but John Cabot was a practical person. not in search of
pictorial effects. Ie said the soil was good and the climate tem erate,
and gave promise of the growth of sillk and brazil-wood. 4
APPENDIX B.
‘LIVING SLIME.”
It is probably Professor Hind who originated this somewhat dis-
agreeably graphic phrase. It has been taken up by succeeding writers to
express the tee ming microscopic life of the Arctic current, and Mr. Har-
risse has tripped over it. He can hardly be blamed, for the metaphor is
a little strong, The following passage from “ Hatton and Harvey's New-
foundland” explains it thoroughly (p. 352) :
«Phe icy current flowing | from the Arctic seas is in many places ‘a
‘* living mass, a vast ocean of living slime,’ and this slime, which accom-
‘panies the icebergs and floes, accumulates on the banks of northern
“ Labrador, and renders the existence possible there of all those forms of
‘marine life—from the diatom to the minute crustacean, from the min-
Sissel tiie Se aint
cS a ih a al erent abt “2 te
them.
teered
led in
report
almost
ym the
{Nain
iwehvak
mm the
farther
y miles
north-
side of,
lescrip-
s taken
van the
slowly
power,
ey sides
until at
up foam
the p-e-
nothing
~-lovely,
vith the
beetling
y islets—
delicate
search of
m perate,
what dis-
writers to
|My. Har-
etaphor is
vey's New-
places °a
ich accom-
f northern
se forms of
m the min-
BY
:
i
|
ARASH oi
nes ce bein P Necininl Bruce
[s. B. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 21
“ute crustacean to the prawn and crab, together with the molluscous
“ animals and starfish in vast profusion which contribute to the support
of the great schools of cod which also tind their home there, The same
current which brings the slime and multitudes of minute crustaceans
also carries on its bosom innumerable cod ova, and distributes them far
“and wide.”
There is no need to go to Cape Chidley for abundance of cod, for the
fishermen of Labrador have not yet extended their operations so far
north. The Arctic current sweeps down along the east coast of New-
foundland and along the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. Tie
Americans have fished out their waters, and the myriads of fish which
swarm into every bay round Newfoundland show signs of diminution,
but the old writers speak of the cod on these coasts as being so numer-
ous as almost to stop the vessels. For three hundred years the cod-fishery
on the banks of Newfoundland has been the annual resort of the fisher-
men not only of the colonies but of western Europe, and no signs of
exhaustion are yet apparent. The simple fact is that the Tabrador tish-
eries are newer ground, and the Newfoundlanders are e. 1g up the
coast, and have got at present as far as Nain. Moreover. . .nd this is
conclusive—the cod do not reach Cape Chidley until August.
nw
iT)
.
-
‘
APPENDIX C.
Carr Norra on toe Map or 1544.
An inspection of the 1544 map will show how correctly Mr. Harrisse
read the meaning of the Prima Vista in his first book ; for th two points
at the north cannot be Cape St. Lawrence and Cape North on a map so
small in scale, but are Cape North and Cape Breton. The reai fact is
that Cape Si Lawrence and Cape North are only seven geographical
miles apart, and the indentation which separates them is not more than
two and a half miles deep, so that they were long taken as one headland.
The whole question is exhaustively discussed by Dr. Bourinot in Appen-
dix VII. of his monograph on Cape Breton, It is one of great difficulty,
anu it would introduce new subject matter to go over ground which
Bourinot, Ganong, Pope and Bishop Howley have discussed at length.
It is sufficient here to say that the Cap Loraine of Cartier must be the
Cap Loran of Champlain’s map of 1612 and Cap St. Laurens of his map
of 1632, and also the Cap de Nort of Denys in
1672. The wnole island of Cape Breton was 72
called the island of “Sainct Laurens” before
and up to Champlain’s time, although the
name of the long known Cape Breton was
then being extended ove: the island. Cham-
plain says the island isin the “shape of a tri-
angle:” that is, one point to the north—Cape
St. Lawrence, one to the northeast—Cape Bre-
ton, and one to the southwest at the Strait of
Canso, Denys’s map is given in Dr. Bourinot’s
“Cape Breton,” and he, like Champlain, makes
one headland at the north, but calls it “Le Cap
de Nort.” cee
The annexed traving, reduced from a re-
cent map, will show the triangular shape of
the island.
Exterior outline of Cape
Breton Island.
22 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
Theévet is not a writer to be trusted implicitly, but he throws some
light upon the subject, and he says he had his information from Cartier
in person, He locates Cap Lorraine very precisely by saying that. be-
tween it and Newfoundland is a pretty large island, about four leagues in
circumference, evidently referring to St. Paul’s Island, This corroborates
the view that the old writers counted but one headland at the north,
The bearing of all this upon the present question is that the map of
1544, in its distorted shape of the land, shows two points to the north, the
most easterly of which is Cape Breton, not Cape North, and that the
‘astern point is marked as the Prima Vista, so that the map of 1544 is i
not antagonistic to the theory of the landfall at the easternmost point of ‘
the Ac adian land. |
Sipe. ee ee ds ee ea ;
| y /
ee lee al !
on 3 4 |
n ) ae no ae) Yo 4
| roy 2 ev \) Ss Yo \\ ‘
VX “A 1S < i
| ‘ nih © S Kee |
a - oi
\ I a Be. | JB oe
i Laos ok | :
\ é » ie _ j » ¢ E. a \ 4
| | a Ke, Ee
| a ee” it as
Pe i OM
| q | \ ‘|
| ees. as 3
' L 5
| \ | op eae eer eee ere
\ & |
\J . —_ f|
| > O° i
Pe Se
Ls Notegy i
| S 3
| | ¥ | \ q
| NJ eT NE LL I Sea |
: Tracing from a photograph of the Original Map of 1544. 4
The preceding cut is an exact tracing from one of twelve full-sized
| photographs of the map of 1544, made at the instance of the late Dr.
Deane. It is in the Lenox libr ary at New York. This may be con-
:
d sidered for the present purpose as equivalent to the map itself. The out-
4 line is carefully traced, and all the lettering has been purposely omitted, 4
1 excepting the words prima tierra vista, as confusing the present issue ; i
reference to the facsimile in the pre ‘vious paper may be made, 4
besides, a
or to the facsimiles in many other
F because it was found that the facsimiles had often been copied, one trom
another, and little differences existed, It would unduly strain the argu- 4
attach too much importance to the little projections at the ex- 4
books. This tracing has “been made
ment to
i treme northeast end of the land; but, so far as they go, they indicate a
broken coast-line, with deep indentations, such as exist on the coast ;
between Cape Breton and Cape North. The map will be seen at once to P
be very imperfect. The Bay of Fundy is not shown, and the island of
, some
Jartier
at be-
rues in
rates
sh.
nap of
th, the
at the
L544 is
oint of
‘ull-sized
late Dr.
be con-
The out-
omitted,
nt issue ;
be made,
en made
me Toni
he argu-
t the ex-
dicate a
he coast
t once to
island of
nah hn ca RS RO pc ca eg pes eG a NCSA ee REED
[s. B. DAWSON | THE VOYAGES OF TILE CABOTS 23
_
Cape Breton is not separated. The coast-line is continuous from the
prima vista far to the southwest.
The following is a cut of the outline of a recent map of the same
portion of the coast, reduced by photography to bring it as near as
possible to the same scale as the map of 1544,
J ‘ Sete goes
foi ee ON
eee! / ton,
Pe aa
Outline of the Acadian Coast.
APPENDIX D.
JuAN DE LA Cosa’s Map.
So much importance has been given in the present paper, as well as
in the monograph to which it forms a sequel, to the map of’ La Cosa that
it is desirable to collect the chief notices of the map and its author and
present them in a condensed form.
Juan de La Cosa was born about the year 1460, at Santofa (Puerto
de Santa Maria) a seaport in the north of Spain, eighteen miles east of
the better known Santander, and near to the border of the Basque
provinces—a part of Spain noted for its hardy and daring sailors
and, at that time, the centre of the whaling fleet then extending their
voyages farther and farther into the hidden mysteries of the western
ocean, The natural career of a Spaniard born on that coast at that
period was upon the ocean, and La Cosa made voyages along the west
coast of Africa in the tracks of the Portuguese discoverers, as well as to
Flanders and the north of Europe. In this way he became the captain
and owner of a good vessel, the “Santa Maria,” of 100 tons burden,
When Columbus was preparing his expedition for the discovery of
the new world he found, at Palos, the vessel of La Cosa and chartered it,
hoisting upon it his own flag as admiral, for it was the largest of’ his three
ships, and engaging its owner to go with him as master. The ship was
lost on the island of Hispaniola “and Columbus in his private journal
throws blame on La Cosa but, as the ship was La Cosa’s property, he can
scarcely have had any object in wrecking it and the admiral was, beyond
doubt, a little je: ulous of those who might be supposed to share the credit
of his achievements. Dr. Justin Winsor, in his life of Columbus, may be
consulted on this point, and itis not necessary here to enter into the
minor defects of a man so great as Columbus. It is sufficient to say that,
whatever he wrote in his private diary, he made no public complaint and
that the Spanish sovereigns re-imbursed La Cosa for the vessel he had
lost and if any blame had attached to him that certainly would not have
been done. On the contrary, so highly was his skill as a navigator rated
that Columbus urged him to go with him in 1494 on his second voyage
24 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
and gave him command of the “ Nifla,”’ with the additional rank of mas-
ter chart-maker. It is very remarkable that Columbus adhered until
his death to the opinion that Cuba was a promontory of Asia, but La
‘Cosa on his map portrayed it as an island. On this second voyage La
Cosa with the other masters and pilots of the expedition was compelled
by Columbus to sign a solemn notarial declaration that Cuba was part of
the main continent, an unusual proceeding and one suggestive of the
existence of doubt. La Cosa returned to Spain in 1496, and for a short
time resumed his former life as a sailor and shipowner.
In 1499, Alonzo Ojeda obtained permission to fit out an expedition
of discovery, and he at once secured La Cosa as chief pilot. Amerigo
Vespucci was on this expedition as chief cosmographer and Herrera
claims for La Cosa the honour of being, rather than Vespucci, the true
coca hd of the mainland of America, which discovery he says was
sally made on this expedition, although it is now known that the
panies discovered the coast of Vener tela in August, 1498, on his third
voyage. By a grim irony of fate the new world has received its name
not from Columbus, nor from Cabot, nor from Ta Cosa, nor even from
any professional sailor or veritable discoverer, but from Amerigo
Vespucci, a Florentine merchant and contractor, who became an amateur
sailor in middle life under the stimulus of the achievements of the great
navigators whom he associated with during his residence in Seville.
The expedition of Ojeda returned to Spain in 1500, and in the autumn
of that year La Cosa made, for their Catholic Majesties of Castile and
Aragon, the map now so celebrated. In the following year (1501)
he sailed again to America with a trading ex pedition, having been
engaged, as Herrera says. as “being the ‘best pilot in existence for
“those seas, and one who had been trained by the admiral.” On the
return voyage many ships of the fleet were lost, but he escaped ship-
wreck,
In 1504 he sailed as captain-general of four ships sent by royal orders
to America, and, after many adventures, returned to Spain in 1506, where
the gov ernment employed him in matters of geography and navigation,
and in 1507 Ferdinand summoned him to court at Burgos, together with
Juan Diez Solis, Vincente Pinzon and Amerigo Vespucci, to a council, at
which new expeditions were decided on. Pinzon and Solis sailed first,
and, later on, in 1507, La Cosa sailed; but before sailing he made what
was called the padron, or standard chart, for the marine wsapartment at
Seville, on which all discoveries were entered as they weve reported.
From this expedition he returned in 1508.
In 1509 he sailed on his seventh and last expedition, with the rank
of lieutenant for the king. It was a disastrous attempt to settle a colony
on the mainland, and La Cosa was killed by Indians on the coast of
Venezuela.
His reputation as a navigator, cosmographer and map-maker stood
second only to that of the great admir: ul. He was a favourite of the
Spanish monarchs, and the ‘Spanish historians often mention him as a
great pilot. Peter Martyr says his charts were esteemed before all others,
and Tas Casas calls him the best of pilots. Fonseca, bishop of Burgos,
who had been president of the marine board of tr ade (Casa de Contra.
tacion), had one of his maps—spoken of by Peter Martyr, in 1514, as
very beautiful. The more sanguine would fain think that this is the
same map, but there is no proot P either way.
Oost ane tea step Ory
BSE ye Senin Tne ee!
tell ae.
ao
j
2
:
4
y
%
5
:
i
mas-
until
it a
e La
yelled
rt of
f the
short
dition
1eTi gO
arrera
> true
s was
it’ the
third
name
from
nerigo
nateur
| great
itumn
le and
(1501)
y been
ce for
Jn the
1 ship-
orders
where
gation,
or with
neil, at
id first,
le what
ment at
sported.
he rank
. colony
coast of
er stood
» of the
im as a
1 others,
Burgos,
Contra-
1514, as
is is the
ni
:
ka
:
o
|
f
4
i
2
#
|
4
4
imac
elses SM
Et arte sierra
ASA RSS DERE ASEM
ie Wie
/
4
‘
{s. EB. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 25
La Cosa’s map had no influence upon the cartography of the time.
It was, like other maps, jealously guarded in the royal library, or in the
archives of the marine board and of the council of the Indies, and disap-
peared for a long time, until it turned up in Paris, having probably been
carried away among the plunder of the French troops. It was bought
by the Baron von Walkenaer, ambassador of Holland, who freely com-
municated it to scholars, and to Humboldt among others. Walkenaer
died in 1853, and the Spanish government secured it, at the sale of’ his
library, as a national treasure. All the maps of Columbus have disap-
peared, and this is a contemporary map of his discoveries, also made by
one of his chief companions.
The map is on parchment, and is mounted on a skin of Russia
leather, and preserved under glass and in a costly oak frame in the naval
museum at Madrid. It is a marine chart, and in the interior countries
it is adorned with figures which express the current beliefs of the time.
It isa graphic summary of all the geographical knowledge of the age,
for it is a mapa mundi, mappe monde, or world map. The continent of
Asia is shown a little beyond the Ganges, on the right, and on the lett is
the new world, taken to be the eastern coast-line of Asia. There can be
very little doubt but that La Cosa had before him the map of the first
voyage made by John Cabot, which Pedro de Ayala sent to the King of
Spain, The coast-line to the south, where it meets the Spanish dis-
coveries, was either drawn from information brought by the return of
the second Cabot expedition, or, as might well happen, is an Asiatic
coast-line drawn from Toscanelli’s map and founded on Marco Polo’s
information and that of other travellers. There are no Asiatic names
upon it, however. On that unknown part of the coast which Columbus
and others were then searching, in order to find an opening through to
the west, La Cosa has drawn a picture of St. Christopher carrying the
Infant Jesus on his shoulders across the sea, Fancy has imagined a por-
trait of the admiral in the face of the saint, but it is probably merely an
adaptation of the beautiful legend to give expression to the religious zeal
of the modern Christopher.
Facsimiles of the American portion of this important map have
been published by Humboldt, Jomard, Harrisse, Winsor, Markham,
Kohl, and other scholars. The tracing given in the writer’s monog raph
of 1594, and now reproduced, was reduced from a facsimile published at
Madrid in 1892, in commemoration of the fourth centenary of the dis-
covery by Columbus. It is of the full size of the original and in all the
brilliant colours and with all the quaint designs and illustrations which
make it so interesting to students, It was produced by lithography
under the care of Signor Canovas Vallejo and Professor Traynor of
Madrid. The descriptive book is by Antonio Vascano, whose name on
the tracing sketch in the monograph of 1894 is alone given, although it
would have been more proper to have given precedence to the two other
names.
The importance of this map in the present controversy cannot be
overrated, The Cavo de Ynglaterra cannot be taken for any other than
that characteristic headland of northeast America, which for almost four
hundred years has appeared on the maps under one name in the various
forms of Cape Raz, Rase, Razzo, or Race, a name derived from the Latin
rasus—smooth shaven or flat. That the name is expressive and ap-
propriate will be seen from the following engraving from a photograph
26 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
taken for the Department of Marine of Canada, which has the care and
maintenance of the lighthouse upon this historic landmark of the high-
way between the old and the new worlds
Cape Race, from the Ocean.
APPENDIX E.,
JACQUES CARTIER AND HIS DIscovERIEs.
Some apology is required for alluding to facts so elementary as
these, inasmuch as they are obvious to all students, and they have been
elucidated in minute detail by a band of French Canadian scholars whose
contributions to the history of this continent have won respectful
attention in the old world as well as in the new. No such question as
“Cartier vs. Cabot” was raised in the Royal Society of Canada, the
first section of which includes many French writers whose researches
have thrown light on the obscurer portions of our history and who
are adepts in such inquiries as these. It became advisable to notice
the cry of “Cartier vs. Cabot” put forth by some correspondents
of newspapers, not for the sake of the society, but for the sake of the
general public. Cape Breton is a part of the province of Nova Scotia
which did not, until 1867, become part of the Dominion of Canada, It
was never Canada before that date, and it is therefore misleading to call
Cabot the discoverer of Canada as it would be misleading to speak of
Ponce de Leon as the discoverer of the United States.
The persons who felt called upon to rush to the defence of Jacques
Cartier, abdut whom nobody was thinking, did not stop to consider the
logical result of their inconsiderate zeal. For if it be true, as Humboldt
and his followers maintain, that Cabot struck the coast of Labrador and
followed it down in the way they think indicated by La Cosa’s map—if it
id
h-
ry as
been
v hose
ectful
on as
, the
irches
| who
notice
ndents
yf the
Seotia
la. It
to call
ak of
acques
ler the
mboldt
lor and
p—if it
[s. E. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF TILE CABOTS 27
be true that the named coastline on that map is the southern coast of
Labrador, then it is also true that, in the strictest sense of the words,
John Cabot was the discoverer of Canada, and Cartier followed along a
coast where the English flag had been planted thirty-seven years before.
The coast of southern Labrador was an integral part of old French
Canada; it was claimed up to latitude 55° N.. and concessions were
made by the Government at Quebee and were occupied and worked,
beyond the Strait of Belle Isle, as fishing stations, under licenses from the
French Crown and, to the present day, the coast of Labrador as fir east
ws Blane Sablon forms part of the province of Quebec. ‘To a simple
student of history the landfall is a matter of indifference, saving as a fact
to be ascertained, but those who have imported national feeling into the
matter and who, without due consideration, are defending the renown
of Jacques Cartier, which no one has impugned, are, in pressing their
arguments for Labrador, unconsciously betraying the very cause they
fancy themselves to be supporting,
The Transactions of this society contain many original and very
valuable papers upon Jacques Cartier'’s voyages. In relation to the
present discussion it has only to be noted that Cartier did not commence
to give names to the places he visited until he had passed Brest ; a port
in the Strait of Belle Isle well known to fishermen, He left his ships
there for awhile and explored taurther westward in his boats and it was
then he met the ship from Rochelle. He says:
“ Kstans en ce fleuve nous advisasmes une grande Nave qui estoit de
“la Rochelle, laquelle avoit la nuict precedante passé outre le port de
‘ Brest, ot ils pensoyent aller pour pescher, mais les mariniers en sgavoy-
‘ent ot estait le lieu. Nous nous accostames d’eux, et nous mismes
ensemble en un autre port, qui est plus vers Ouest,” * * *%
It should be observed here that Brest was undoubtedly within the
present limits of the province of Quebec. and yet it was a place trequent-
ed by French fishermen ; fromthat point Cartier’s discoveries commence ;
all farther west was new.
In like manner when, on his second voyage, he returned home south
of Newfoundland he speaks of Cape Lorraine, the north point of Cape
Breton. He remained for some days at St. Pierre Miquelon where he
found some French fishing vessels. Cartier’s simple and unassuming
narrative convinces every reader that all the country inside, from rt
maux Bay on the Canadian Labrador round to Cape North in Cape
Breton, was explored first by him, and all the coast outside of these two
points, that is outside the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was well known before
him.
a
©
APPENDIX F.
LituraicaL Mersop or TrRactna DiscovVERIES ALONG A COAST.
This ingenious method, suggested first by Mr. Harrisse, will not woes
out satisfactorily in practice. Beyond question, when a discovery wa
made on any important festival it was frequently named in commemo-
‘ation of the day ; but, although usually religious men, these early
explorers were sailors and not ecclesiastics with the Brevi lary consiantly
in their hands. They had sweethearts and wives, like the sailors of our
day, and remembered them in the same human way. Thus Cartier
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA ‘
28
named one of the islands he found in the Strait of Belle Isle, St, Kathe- 4
rine. That was on the 27th of May ; but April 30 is the day of St. 4
Katherine of Alexandria. -
Katherine of Siena and November 25 that of St.
Neither day will suit the liturgical theory, and the conclusion is irre-
sistible that Cartier was thinking of his wife Katherine des Granges, who
was probably named after the earlier saint and martyr of Alexandria, as
St. Katherine of Siena was not canonized until 1461. She had not in the
north the veneration ske had in Italy.
Judge Prowse, in reviewing my monogyaph on the Cabots, thinks
that this liturgical test upsets ny theory that Cabot sailed, as shown by
La Cosa’s map, from west to east along the coast of Newfoundland. He
says ‘the author ignores the fact that the old pilots in naming the coast
« followed the calendar, The position of Cape St. Jorge (April 23) and
“@, St. Lucia (December 13), west of St. Nicholas (December 6) show
“ conelusively that the navigator whose voyage La Cosa’s map records
H «“ sailed from east to west.”
I venture to think that the very dates Judge Prowse quotes explode
conclusively the whole liturgical theory ; for it is very certain that before
} the year 1500 neither on December 6, or December 13, in the depth of
winter could there have been any vessels on that coast, nor would any
vessel be likely to have been there as early in the spring as April 23 ; and,
again, any navigator along the coast would have made a quicker passage
between Cape St. Jorge and Cape St. Lucia than from April 23 to
December 13, whichever way he sailed.
A
APPENDIX G.
The following table is taken from a statement prepared by Professor
Henry Youle Hind, M.A., and laid before the Commission on the Fishery
Clauses of the Treaty of Washington, which met at Halifax in 1877.
2AN DATE OF ARRIVAL OF Cop IN NORTH-
TABLE SHOWING THE APPROXIMATE MI
LABRADOR.
i EASTERN NEWFOUNLAND, SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN
a a es
MEAN DATE OF
LocALITY. | ARRIVAL.
se rneereee eer eenee
|
NEWFOUNDLAND.
Ist June.
> O
47°30 Conception Bay
10th =“ a
| 48°20 Bonavista Bay .....--- +0552 sere i deied gave Ahonen eine ah Sa
| 48°30 Notre Dame Bay ....s.cscees cenerecece essere nceereees ...| 20th“
| 50° | Cape St. John to Par. Tt | 20th “*
45°80 |. Wiilte Hays. c. acs o ts vaccum satae tas uengtetoryrerettesnn tones’ | 10th =‘
51° | Cape Rouge Harbour........ -+--ssssercrecteresse 10th ‘‘
51°30 Cape Bauld to Cape Onion......00 veers tee etet te nets enst 20th =‘
Over four degrees of latitude.
X
: [s. E. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 29
Bs. TABLE SHOWING THE APPROXIMATE MEAN Darr OF ARRIVAL OF Cop IN NorvTH-
1e- a , ‘ . A
Si a EASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND, SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN LABRADOR.—Continued.
iT e
ith, 4 = —— : =
re- i Sarees MEAN DATE OF
i Lat. LOCALITY, | ARRIVAL,
as ~ = —————— | ———___—__—
the re) SOUTHERN LABRADOR,
ks 52°0 | Chateau Bay... .....ciessstssrieeeves dihsipen nasty ceca visas | 20th June.
by BB°24 | Batteaux...... ccc cece ccc cscs ccnccavtuseucucevcuvcvevenncs | 12th July.
He ; | ie
ast 54°26 | Indian Harbour........... 0 .........5. ip tn Nea detoatese ..| th *
and 54°66 | Cape Harrison...............ceccccccecsscccceecccecccvevecee| 18th
1OW i F
rds Over three degrees of latitude.
ode NORTHERN LABRADOR.
fore BOLE PAI B ccd teeruincate ogtalsowa? euiee etiote anata hah On Muake dh edhe duties 20th July.
of wen eo
54°57 | Kypokok.... 0. ccc cece cee ven eaees bo anatmagniies 20th =‘
any
und, 55°27 | Hopedale............0. cece cece eee ee soache sicher Macnee tis tyut 20th *
nce i cg e
ae 55°30 | Double Island Harbour... .................00005. Said fences 22nd
(
55°52 | Ukkasiksalik.....0 0.0.0... ec ccc cece ee ceneeneucueeenes 28th *
56°33 | Nain............... soca ecasaea ecutive ween aie Seoahecdih achat Bal Renae TS eae 2th *
BY fa U0 I ©) °¢) - <p an B gCR 2th *
6890)! Hebron si ¢ ora e satis hah eRe ees Kataidle dianRinae Ba ake pawn. aie t 15th August.
| |
4Ssor 58°46 | Lampson............... sep highs Matias ela trend eves dare eet nort wea oars | 15th “
: |
1eY '
y Over three and a half degrees of latitude.
baer! ae re as A ES
Sarin: Cape Chidley is still further north—in lat. 60° 30’. It is not included
in the table, being too far north to have any practical bearing on the
question before the Commissioners.
\TE OF
Ala
e
.
‘ .|
30 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
NOTES.
1, Communication to the Montreal Gazetfle, July 80th, 1895,
2, In his notes to the admirable edition of Champlain's Voyages, published in
Quebec, 6 vols,, dto, 1870.
3. Histoire du Canada. 2 vols., 8vo. Quebec, L&61,
1. Trans. Roy. Soc, of Canada, Vol, for 1801,
5. See Hakluyt, American Voyages passim, and later throughout all the nego
tiations of the 17th and Isth centuries. This point has ceased to be of any
practical value now, and is often overlooked.
6. The early maps show this beyond all ecavil. The Cantino map, 1501, the Canerio
map of the same date, the King map, 1502-8, the map of Salvat de Palestrina,
1503-4, the Portuguese portolanos of 1502-4, and, above all, Reinel's map,
1505, and all the later maps, prove this. It can scarcely be seriously disputed,
for the names still cling to the coast disguised under English distortions.
7. John Cabot, the Discoverer of North Amevica, and Sebastian, his Son. London,
1S06,
&. Gordon, Report on Hudson’s Bay Expedition of 1886, Ottawa,
See Monograph Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 1894, where this confusion between the
two voyages is unravelled and explained.
10, That Ce bot was in London by Aug, 10th, 1497, is proved by an entry in the King’s
Peivy Purse accounts, showing that a gratuity of £10 was given to the man
‘who first sighted land, Cabot landed at Bristol on his return, and in that
are some days must be allowed for the news t* travel to London.
11. Some critics complained that these references ¥ not put at the foot of each
page. The object of the plan adopted then and now is to enable the hasty
reader to grasp the argument quickly, without distracting his attention by
the more detailed information required by those interested in the study of
these questions,
12, Trans. Roy. Soe. Canada. Vol. vii., for 1889,
13, Dr, Bourinot’s monograph was also published separately, but in a limited
edition, and is now out of print.
lt. Vide Patterson on Portuguese discoveries, cited ante. Frey Luis, now Cape
Freels ; Cabo d’Espera, now Cape Spear; Baya Fondo, now Bay of Fundy ;
Cabo Razo, now Cape Race, and others ; to which list may be added Ro;nousi
or Rognosco, whence Cartier took his departure home on his second voy We,
now called Renews,
id. The landfall of Columbus is not absolutely settled to the satisfaction of «ll.
Watling’s Island has the weight of authority now, and is generally accepted,
but Capt. Fox, of the U.S. Navy, argues for Samana ina very elaborate
monograph, Navarrete and others argue for Grand Turk’s Island, Varn-
hagen for Marignana, and Irving, Humboldt and others for Cat Island.
These points are not far apart, but Labrador and Cape Breton are so widely
distinguished from each other that there should not be much difficulty.
nego
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